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Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations have severed diplomatic and transport ties with the Gulf state of Qatar, claiming Doha's regional policies fuel extremism and terrorism.
The synchronised attempt to isolate Qatar also includes Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, escalating a simmering dispute over Qatar's support for political Islam and perceptions that Doha is open to closer ties with Saudi Arabia's arch-rival, Iran.
Source: Financial Times
Two weeks ago, the same four countries blocked Qatari news sites, including Al Jazeera. Controversial comments purportedly by Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani criticising Saudi Arabia appeared on Qatari state media.
Source: BBC News
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, Al Arabiya reported, citing state media outlets from the Gulf countries. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt said they will suspend air and sea travel to Qatar, while Riyadh said it would close overland border crossings with its Gulf neighbor as well. Bahrain gave Qatari diplomats 48 hours to leave, while Saudi Arabia gave Qatari citizens two weeks to leave. Qatar has also reportedly been cut out of the coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen. The breakdown of diplomatic ties stems from tensions over Doha's relationship with Tehran and its alleged support for the Muslim Brotherhood. With a small population and a unitary state centralized around Doha, Qatar lacks the internal ethno-religious tensions and political insecurities of its neighbors.
Source: Stratfor
A group claims it will begin publishing the private emails of the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States this weekend, according to a report from The Daily Beast.
"GlobalLeaks" - which does not appear to be related to the WikiLeaks-type website sharing the same name - sent 55 pages of Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba's emails to the news outlet along with a message saying the group would publish the entire cache this Saturday.
According to the message, the leaked emails will demonstrate "how a small rich country/company used lobbyists to hurt American interests and those of it allies."
Source: The Hill
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Tuesday June 06 2017, @02:10AM (12 children)
So, they fund the terrorists but let us have an airbase in their country so we're cool.
I'm so fucking sick of the middle east. We have the gas due to fracking and CAFE standards, we don't need them anymore. Why can't we just get the fuck out of anywhere within 1,000 miles of Iran (hoping that included Afghanistan) and let them just shoot each other.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @02:24AM (4 children)
I think they breed faster than they can kill each other. So.. according to Sun Tzu: "One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to twenty of one's own"
The US may/may not need the resource, but their enemies sure do..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Tuesday June 06 2017, @02:39AM (3 children)
So we leave that shithole and let them breed and our kids refuse to send wheat to them. Let the vicious suckers watch their kids starve while starving themselves.
I'll be dead by then, but I hope my strategy is at least better than sending another 5,000 troops into Afghanistan, most of said troops being special forces (that is, the best of the best).
I think this is called "quit throwing good money after bad". The place is a shithole, lets get out and let our front line forces be front line defense.
Afghanistan hasn't been turned into a decent society by the British, by the Soviet Union, and won't be by us. Quit wasting money and lives, GTFO, and let them kill themselves like they seem to enjoy doing.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Tuesday June 06 2017, @03:31AM (2 children)
It seems Afghanistan was tolerable until circa 1978. It's the same with Iran pre-1979. Have a look at photographs from these periods and how fast the circumstances changed. Then compare with what's going on in the west.
(Score: 0, Redundant) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:15AM (1 child)
I've always said, I don't think we should have overthrown Mosaddegh. Shouldn't have given so much power to the Shah. Because some of what he did with Savak, what the Shah did with them, with his secret police, was terrible for his ratings. Very unpopular. The Shah, I assume, was a good person. He was a king after all. I don’t see it as crimes. I just think he goes down as somebody who did a terrible job. Terrible for the Iranian people. And because of that, they had a revolution. Just a complete disaster, as revolutions always are. Eisenhower got us into it. That’s a terrible, terrible thing that happened. Believe me, you can’t just go in haphazardly. The British got us involved in that mess, got us to make that mess, and now look at it. The British got us in there, but so did Eisenhower. He was President. And now I am. Donald J. Trump. I’m surprised somebody would see the British relationship as being that important. I mean, oil is important. Oil is very important. And Iran has a lot of it. A lot, a lot of oil. But with a great negotiator, you can get that oil. And I'm a great negotiator. The best. So I'm going to negotiate. Like I did with Ford. Iran is like Ford, except it's in the Middle East. Or, you know, I'll do a regime change. Maybe both. But I'm going to get a great deal for you, the American people. A great deal for the great, great American people. Who I always, always put first. #WINNING #TrumpWater
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday June 06 2017, @05:58PM
I'd suggest trying to keep it to 1 really good one per thread. It tends to get redundant as the moderator noted.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Tuesday June 06 2017, @02:47AM (3 children)
Are you mad? Without a terrorist threat how could you justify mass surveillance along with unrivaled and ever-larger military budgets?
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Tuesday June 06 2017, @02:55AM (1 child)
This pretty much nails the problem on the head. Forget the "when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail", we have "Let's make a shit ton of hammers and look for nails".
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @03:58AM
It's gone to lets make a shit ton of hammers AND secretly provide nails...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-syria-wikileaks-idUSTRE73H0E720110418 [reuters.com]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/world/middleeast/cia-said-to-aid-in-steering-arms-to-syrian-rebels.html?pagewanted=all [nytimes.com]
That's why the US Gov is so pissed off with Wikileaks and similar - the nail and hammer supplying is not so secret anymore.
See also: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/05/us-military-admits-failures-to-monitor-over-1-billion-worth-of-arms-transfers/ [amnesty.org]
And: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-audit-army-idUSKCN10U1IG [reuters.com]
Where's all that money coming from and where is it going?
On a less related note: is "US millennials buying avocado toast" really the reason why they're poor?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:00AM
Pentagon's getting a 10% raise. All those not-repaired schools and bridges will need a justification soon enough...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday June 06 2017, @03:57AM
* If the United States won't use the oil then it may enable less than friendly nations to do so and make them prosper. Those nations may be unfriendly to United States.
* There are corporate profits to be made in USA and national profit to be made in the middle east. So they have the financial incentive to stop any weaning of oil.
* Alternatives to oil guzzling is hard and is not really large scale prime time ready.
* Fighting over oil enables weapons manufacturers.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @04:26AM
There was an eerily prescient document laid out by all the big names during Bush's presidency called, Rebuilding America's Defenses [informationclearinghouse.info](PDF). The think tank behind this was Project for the New American Century [wikipedia.org]. That Wiki page has some notes on Rebuilding Americas Defenses if reading a 90 page military policy document isn't your idea of a pleasant evening. The reason this is relevant is because Obama, in foreign policy, followed the exact same neoconservative outline that the document proposed. And now Trump is also doing the exact same thing. Political affiliations aside, that document is a revealing look into the zeitgeist of foreign/military policy in DC.
That document explains, in nearly complete detail, the logic behind all of our seemingly irrational decisions on foreign policy. So in particular with the Mideast - one crucial view the espouse is preventing an international competitor of any sort. If the Mideast was left alone, eventually it would unify under either a strongman or a charismatic leader. And in all probability this new super-nation would be incredibly hostile to the United States. By continuing to poke the hornet's nest and disrupt the Mideast, the US is effectively keeping the entire region in an infantile state of development. And in terms of the preventing of an international competitor - this doesn't just stop at traditional enemies. The mass Islamic migration to the EU has resulted in predictable turmoil, violence, and a general weakening of the EU. This supports not only US interests, but also the interests of organizations like ISIS. I'd expect to see semi-regular terrorist attacks in Britain at least unless Brexit is finalized (April 2019), to constantly remind the public of one of the reasons they're leaving the EU.
And on the topic of ISIS - they are an ideal tool. They are centralized and in locations where the US could engage in mostly traditional warfare with them. We could turn them into scurrying rats left hiding in caves and safe houses, similar to what happened to Al Qaeda - who at one time had open well known training camps. But again, this entire notion of marginalizing the rest of the world to our benefit is something that once again explains our lack of gusto in bringing them down. Turkey is also now radicalizing itself at the same time Trump invites them to the white house and praises Erdogan as an "ally in the fight against terror."
And to be clear I have 0 support for any of these sort of actions. In fact I'd call most of these things nothing short of sociopathic. Nonetheless, read that document if you want to make sense of why we're acting the way we are. It, to this day, continues to explain our actions incredibly well. It also even goes into detail on the government/military beginning take control over cyberspace and even space itself. The latter being something we're at this very moment pursuing. The document also suggested that the transformation of American armed forces through "new technologies and operational concepts" was likely to be a long one, "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor." This was before 9/11, which must have been like a wet dream to the authors. Looking to the future, they even want to start developing things along the lines of 'battle mechs' of the sort you might see in a Japanese anime. Really crazy stuff. Very interesting and important document.
(Score: 4, Touché) by maxwell demon on Tuesday June 06 2017, @04:30AM
Yeah, just the same as Saudi Arabia.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.